For the second time since the opening of the new Barrow County Detention Center in 2009, a Barrow County Grand Jury has recommended that the jail’s staffing be significantly increased.

According to its Feb. 16 report of its six-month term that began Aug. 1, 2011, the grand jury’s foreman, C. Tracy Reynolds, formed a committee in November to conduct an unannounced inspection of the jail and its operations. Noting that in addition to local prisoners, inmates from Clarke, Walton and Gwinnett counties were housed there, the committee concluded following its inspection that the jail is understaffed.

Its obviously not a money maker if the inmates from other counties generate less income than it takes to staff the jail adequately. Fact is we could park our sheriffs cars that travel home every nite and give the officers the 2% back and save enough to staff the needed positions. There are ways to do things,it takes innovation. Its easier to ask for the money.

stop arresting people for non violent crimes like Marijuana use. It costs roughly $40,000 a year to house an inmate for a year, which is higher than the average household income in Barrow county. Wake up people!

When is the last time you heard of anyone being charged with Poss Less 1 oz Marijuana and being sentenced to 1 year in jail?. It doesnt happen. They dont even spend a week in jail unless they violate probation or cant make bond. Even then its nowhere close to a year.

Why even arrest someone who has less than an oz of marijuana?
THAT is a waste of money right there. Hell, BCSO arrests people for picking up scrap metal! It is ALL about the MONEY. Yes, they have to pay for the courthouse, and deputies, and Jud's purty toys, but come on folks.......
Use your head, but then again we are dealing with a bunch of GOB's and Law Dawgs, so what can we expect?????????

Beth, Please answer how its a " waste of money" to charge someone with Marijuana possession. Also, please describe these "purty" toys that "Jud" (sic) has. If your talking about the K9 vehicle (Tahoe), it didn't cost the taxpayers one cent. If you stopped assuming you knew everything in the county government, you might learn something. It was purchased with drug seized funds, you know, money seized from drug dealers. If anything, it saved the county money in the long run. Let me explain shall I, A police Tahoe doesnt cost much more then a crown vic under state contract. Also, the Tahoe comes with a 100,000 mile warranty, meaning if it breaks down, its covered, no questions, no money to fix, notta. Dont beleive what I am saying, go check for yourself. Im sure you wont though, sll you ever do in here is complain about Law Enforcement. Almost seems like you have been on the other side of the law one too many times.....Hmmm, may have hit that one on the head, huh?

It is a waste of time, money, and resources to ARREST someone for possessing a small amount of pot for personal use. That person is not a danger to anyone except his pantry LOL. If you all see fit to continue to fight this ludicrous "war on drugs" then a ticket would be sufficient. Since you ASSume I was speaking of that Tahoe, you would be wrong, as that is NOT what I was speaking of.
Although I do not have to justify myself to you, I , in fact, have NEVER been arrested, or even had a traffic citation. So ....Hmmmmmm. maybe you should stop ASSuming, because it certainly makes an ASS out of you!

Then please tell everyone what the "purty" toys are that you speak of. Last I checked, the only new vehicle on the road is the Tahoe. Unless you know of some toys on the inside, which may be true if you were a disgrunteled ex employee. (Hmmm). So proud you have never been arrested or cited, your a true american hero arent you? You and I both know we could never find out if your telling the truth about being arrested or cited, but I HIGHLY, HIGHLY doubt it.

You have NOTHING to back your claims up of new toys at BCSO. All you do is read everyone elses posts and piggyback off of them. Trying thinking on your own sometime.

I personally spoke with a Deputy who was wanting a different light bar, different ram/push bar (different) design, wanted this & that, Seems that desired optional equiptment has traditionally bought or justified because "we are doing the job" in the past. Be satisfied and conduct your duties with what you have!! Bulletproof Vests, I see that, newer multi-purpose fully marked cars(can be warrant/patrol/traffic/courts) are needed. There are other toys and special decals, and stuff that can wait (if ever) until Obama is gone and maybe the economy can rebound?

but you have NEVER addressed the possession of a small amount of pot.....WHY???? because you don't want us to know how lawdawgs REALLY think? That's what I thought! I have the guts to use my real name Mr. Anonymous, and can back up my claim of a clean record. disgruntled employee??? NEVER BCSO is a JOKE! There is NO way I would ever work for or with them!

I didnt respond to your "marijuana" claim for a reason, its a joke. I will agree with one thing you said about it. Officers do not need to bringing the tiny pot users to jail, they can release on ticket. As far was responding to anything. You NEVER responded to the "purty" toys BCSO has. Ill be waiting.

The Chevy Tahoe is an excellent police vehicle, the top rated SUV for police, and is a good purchase for a special purpose police unit, such as a K9 Unit. It is the only pursuit rated SUV also. The Crown Victoria is no longer made, Ford ended that model. Now the options are Chargers, Impalas, Caprice PPV(a new special police only car), or the Taurus, and the Tahoe. I agree with most above/below, we need to keep with a fleet, don't need sneaky decals, need vests & guns and Crime Supression.

Ok, first of all you have a right to an attorney so they will have to give you one. But try nclliag around because my attorney only charged me $1,500 and I made payments to him over time so I didn't have to cough up that much money. I can't imagine they would tell you that you can't have a public defender I have never heard of them doing that.Although whether you get a good attorney or not .18 is pretty bad and you will def get around $1000 in fines, community service hours (probably 50 hours) mandatory DUI school, and you'll lose your license for a year but you can always get work priviledges. But first, do some research on attorneys and see if you can find a cheap one maybe even a law student who is getting ready to graduate law school they may want the experience. Because with a .18 it won't matter how good the attorney is that's double the legal limit. I do not know the law in NY but I live in FL where they are very harsh on DUI's and anyone over a .15 has to get the breathalyzer in their ignition which is very expensive. But I can tell you with full confidence you will not win this case so do not waste a ton of money on a lawyer that tells you will win you won't.

This is nothing new...every grand jury that has met since the beginning of time always recommends more staff for the sheriff or the jail. Look back at news articles. Every year they meet, listen to the elected officials, visit the facilities and hear the sob stories from these people. Then, they make their recommendation to always give more.

You would think these local citizens would think this thru. Where is the money going to come from? Do you people ever think about that. Bleeding heart liberals serving on the GJ...

Sadly grand jurys are made up of everyday people. instead of saying why do we have so many people locked up, they say we need more jail staff,which means higher taxes. It just shows how brainwashed our society has become.

Why does the Housing of Out-Of-County Prisoners not help sustain the jail's Staffing? Where is that money going? That should be a good income source for the Department. (we should continue this practice while viable)

Those decals you speak of didnt cost taxpayers a dime. Its called drug seizures. Oh wait, thats right, lets take the deputies off the road and stop these special units (ie Narcotics task Force) and see where we end up money wise. Love it when people see dollar signs and automatically think it came from their pocket. Do your homework before you start complaining. Everything stated above is public record. Go see for yourself where you THINK you spent your money. You will be suprised to find how much it DOESNT cost you to have these "special units" and "stealth decals".

And before you respond with the old " hire more deputies with the drug funds then", Dont bother, these funds CANNOT be used for salaries.

Those Decals were Not a Result of Drug Seizures,and we Dont need "nearly Invisable" so called Marked cars, the fleet needs to be uniform, all marked the same. Undercover vehicles would be Unmarked (to catch the Drug dealers). It goes to integrity of the department which I want to have the BCSO seen in a positive light, so i want the unnecessary things like that out of the picture. I say the Tahoe sounds like a good deal, is it marker properly?

Everyone who be a police knows that the dog officer who got the Tahoe did so to keep up with the Auburn dog guy. Too bad he didnt kiss up enough to get a new dog worthy of a nice new ride. Instead he's got a hand me down Black Lab who has had multiple handlers. But hey, he looks like a pimp in his vehicle. Now let's see how much work he does in the "County" and not just in Winder.

Why in Winder? Because the Sheriff is the Barrow County Sheriff, not the "Sheriff of everything not in a city in Barrow County" Winder and Auburn ARE in the County, the department serves where it is needed. If the K9 or any other unit is needed in the city, the BCSO can assist, its called working together.

Why is this an issue to you? The Sheriff is the top law enforcement officer of Barrow County, he is elected by the ENTIRE county, the BCSO is not a Police department where it a defined juridiction that does not overlap. The BCSO works for ALL OF US. Another thing is there are several Different types of K9 units, those K9s perform different functions. WPD & APD also assist the BCSO too. This is what is supposed to happen.

it cost more then the sheriff brings in to arrest ad house folks even with this supposed drug siezure funds, which by the way 20/20 did a news story on that and guess what sme businesses had funds and property siezed just cause they decided to do business in cash, no not anything illegal but would have cost as much if not more to fight the wrongful siezures then to just let the thug depts keep the monies and property. so yeah like some police say they joined the biggest gang, and go about collecting the street tax....

I think you made our point. Walton's 2010 population was 89,800 while Barrow's was 69,300. You said Walton has less deputies with a higher budget. Think about it, more people...less deputies. Why would Barrow need more deputies than Walton? Either Walton is understaffed or Barrow is well overstaffed...which is it. Seems if Walton can do with less, so could Barrow and maybe...just maybe, there would be more money for you a raise.

hey they get group of people the finding is not binding, there are no counter arguments and all they need for finding is majority......
Grand juries are like fish in a barrel they have nothing better to eat then what the barrel owner feeds them.

In case ya'll don't know, the Sheriff is only Constitutionally obligated to maintain the COurthouse Security, serve papers and keep a county jail. I'd like to see some or all of the patrol officers and special units reassigned to adequately staff the jail and courthouse.
Been to the Courthousee lately? Only 1-2 officers under 55 working there. Does Brian Nichols ring a bell?

that no matter how much money we spend on the appreance of safety, at any given day, any given person can find a way with nothing left to lose to try and find thier way out of what they feel is nothing left to loe, even in maximum supermax prisons those employees get stabbed taken hostage and sometimes the unmates leave on thier own timetables, once you take hope from person they have nothing left to lose....

Well my MB 12 gauge, and my smith and wesson .38 revolver help along with my two huskies, then I also get along with my neighbors so hmmm let me see if my wife cant stop them with her sig ssaur then I guess the phone she was trying to dail 911 on wont help either other then to let the Police show up after the fact to probably arrest her for not waiting while the phone rang and onnected and not being patient while the home was broken into and she was in fear for her life.

So if we dont pay the cops something bad may happen to us. Sounds like extortion to me. I tought cops loved the public and they just want to protect us from ourselves. I guess I was under the impression the LEO's do what they do as a labor of "love" the money is just an added bonus. Or could it be the power they are after? No I sure they love us all and just want us to be "safe".

I would LOVE to see our society WITHOUT any type of Law Enforcement. You think its bad now? Do you expect LE's to work for free? What do you suggest we do? PLease enlighten us with your knowledge and great ideas seeing you have all the answers

The BCSO is understaffed. They have had their pay cut more than any other county employee. The county needs to cut some of the higher salaries and give the fire, police and SO more money and more manpower. Crime in Barrow is bad, but fortunately it is not Gwinnett! Unmanned drones?? Really? This is not Iraq or Iran, or at least I don't think it is YET. We don't need drones. We do need better supervision of the SO and police departments.

Grand Jury results are great, BUT they do not produce the money we don't have. We need to get it done now during the tight times, and address the issues more as the economy recovers. (and like said before no unneeded toys)

We would do just fine without law enforcement or bare bone law enforcement. Cops are just armed thug revenue agents for the citys counties and state. They are not here to protect but to dominate, Seen any predator drones over our city latley. I am sure DHS will allot one to the BCSO if they ask nicely.

starting pay is 31,000 and top pay in same post is 49,000 you do not have much to whine about, add in free gas and ride to and from work which is additional 3000 a year tax free not to mention wear and ter if you used own car....... so suck it up overpaid and underworked

I have a solution to all your problems....people need to stop breaking the law...then everyone could stop arguing over who gets what in LEO, and who needs what, and so on and so forth. It's a never ending argument....with no clear advantages to either side. It is fought in almost every county and city in the US. People want cops that don't arrest them, only those who do bad against them. (ever hear the saying "never a cop when you need one, always a cop when you don't)But they don't want to have to pay for those cops. They want criminals (except maybe themselves) in Jail, but don't want to pay for those Jails....I have heard it 100's of times. The same arguments....

Oh and I challenge everyone to think really hard (if it doesn't hurt too much) what do you really think life would be like with out Law Enforcement? How do you think you would run a Sheriff's office or PD seriously before commenting on the problem, maybe you should think about and offer a solution.....Let's see how smart you are now.

Unfortunately these comments represent the "squeaky-wheel" minority. Beth still never answered the "purdy toys" question (I bet she really thinks it is spelled that way...moron.) I hope the sheriff doesnt read this drivel. The normally silent majority appreciates law enforcement ...and thinks you all should go have an intimate relationship with yourself.

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